Workshops:

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Acroyoga

Acroyoga is a movement practice that combines yoga, acrobatics, and therapeutics. Practicing Acroyoga can improve body awareness, communication, self-confidence, and trust in yourself and others. Improved strength and flexibility are some other benefits that come with the practice but with a focus on play and connection you won’t notice you are getting a work out. During this 90 minute playshop you will learn several level 1 poses and some foundations of AcroYoga in a playful and safe environment. We will warm up with games, exercises, and fun drills, followed by accessible progressions into the level 1 poses. Everyone will be invited try all roles and to try new things. Come ready to move and play! This playshop is targeted at people with little or no experience in Acroyoga and to those looking to refine their level 1 techniques.

**SUITABLE TO ALL LEVELS - no previous experience in Acroyoga or yoga needed

** NO NEED TO BRING A PARTNER

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Advocating, Community Building and Networking​

Creating change can be difficult at times, especially in a world that caters around heteronormative viewpoints. Often individuals that go against the standard heteronormative culture become the proverbial outcasts of society. To combat this bias, we can use advocacy, networking and community building to normalize ethical non-monogamy and its acceptance. Come join us and strategize ways on how we can bring awareness of the various relationship dynamics.

 

Charting Your Relationship Needs and Expectations

Are you tired of the "Relationship Escalator" that society shoves down your throat? Would you like to map out your own way of relationship satisfaction with your partner(s) but have no idea where to begin? Using group discussions and interactive exercises, this workshop will explore the three major areas of charting a relationship, whether you're monogamous, polyamorous, or a relationship anarchist, or starting a dyad, triad, or polygon: 1) the Space-Time Continuum, 2) Life Participation Areas, and 3) Declarations of Significance. Participants will be asked to consider how much time and space they have and need for themselves and for other people, what are the different parts of their lives, which parts are for sharing, how they want to feel special in a relationship, and what they're willing to do to make other folks feel special (e.g. titles, tokens, ceremonies, going to events together, and exclusivity). Handouts will be provided.

 

Embracing Anarchy: How Throwing Away the Rule-Book Can Lead to More Satisfying Relationships

Relationships, whether they are with family, friends, coworkers, partners or our own self, and whether they are romantic, sexual or platonic, are an important crucible in which we discover and shape our identities and a crucial part of a life well-lived and worth living. Because relationships are so important, we have created and maintain a variety of formal and informal systems, rules and guidelines for how to be in relationship with one another. While some rules are helpful (e.g. don’t lie, cheat or steal), others can seem more arbitrary, and may lead to more confusion, hurt and missed opportunities than they aim to prevent. Relationship Anarchy (RA) aims to do away with the various rulebooks and our mental models for relationships and instead focusing on small set of clear core values that can help enhance any relationship. In this facilitated discussion, we will explore RA's core concepts, share ideas, experiences, and tools to help strengthen our relationships.

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HAI Mini Workshop​

Join us for a beautiful 2.5 hour experiential workshop (exercises & group sharing) to explore ways of increasing intimacy and connection in our lives; communication tools to take to our partners, relationships, children, workplace and family lives.

Attending a mini workshop is a great way to get a taste of what the Human Awareness Institute (HAI) has to offer with these key themes:

~ Love, intimate and sexual relationships
~ Partnership, communication and being happy with others
~ Improving body image to improve your relationships
~ Making healthy relationship choices for you
~ Finding love, being honest and creating intimacy
~ Safety: How can we create safety around us so that we can be ourselves, where our vulnerability will be honoured?
~ Choice: How often do we relinquish our choice and do "what is expected of us?" The workshop helps us examine our relationships to choice, how we can increase our awareness of choice, and expand our choices in our day-to-day lives
~ Communication: The exercises look at focus, active listening, responding without fixing and sharing quality time
~ Intimacy: What is love, What is Intimacy? What are we saying when we hug? What is the person saying who is hugging us? How can we make a space of safety for people to express themselves?
 

Make Ontario’s Laws Work for You​

Sometimes, everything just works out. Other times, you have to work to make that happen. If you’re poly, you’re probably in the second category, particularly when it comes to making sure the law does what you want it to.

Let’s talk about Wills, powers of attorney for property and personal care, “living wills” and life insurance for everyone, as well as co-habitation agreements for those who need them. (Yes, if you care about the person who will have to deal with your stuff, you probably really do need a Will even if you’re living on your own. Yes, even if you have no kids. Yes, even if “I don’t really have too much to leave.” Yes, you. Probably.)

I can’t give you legal advice and don’t have all the answers, but I can suggest things to think about, hurdles you may face, and some ways to overcome them

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Our Inner Stories, Co-authors of our Relationships​​

We all have stories that we’ve bought into, that we believe in. Consciously and subconsciously, they shape our perception and affect our behaviours. Often without fully knowing, we cast our selves and those around us into roles and narratives that are counter to our desires and needs.

 

What are the impacts and interactions of inner stories on relationships? Learn methods of finding these stories and uncovering themes that are affecting your life and the lives of your partners. Try reading/writing your own table of contents, identify truthful and discordant stories within yourself and your partners. Learn techniques to reject unhelpful narratives. I’ll guide you through ideas discussion and exercises around these concepts.

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Poly 101​

What is polyamory? How does it work? How is it not just cheating? Is it the same thing as swinging or polygamy? What's a “Triad”? Don't you ever get jealous? How can you build solid, healthy relationships that work? Join us to explore answers to these questions and more in this introduction for those new to poly and those curious about what polyamory is and isn't.

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Poly ABCs

​What are they and how can your relationships benefit from them? Join us for an advanced polyamory panel where we will discuss different types of agreements and contracts as well things to consider when establishing boundaries. Topics will include negotiation, check-ins, defining your terms, examples of contracts, and more.

 

Poly Transition Discussions: A Small Group Intimate Conversation​

Transitioning into polyamorous relationship(s) can be fraught with challenges and also filled with joy and despair. These intimate conversations will center around the experiences of participants in transitioning into polyamory. It will help folks new to (or considering) polyamory make the transition more smoothly. Those more experienced in non-monogamy will have the opportunity to share their successes and tips for avoiding pitfalls, as well as learning from others.

 

Reducing the Ouch - Understanding Microaggression in Polyamory​​

Are you dealing with the slow wearing down of not being recognized by society? Do people refer to your partner as “your friend”? Small things can have a big impact. A micro-aggression occurs when actions or language, possibly even well-meaning, contain an implicit, indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination. In this workshop we will look at micro-aggressions affecting polyamory; how certain terms and behaviours have biases in them; how they can come from within polyamorous relationships (e.g. couple privilege) and from without (e.g. "wow you must be tired from all the sex!"). The focus will be on recognizing a micro-aggression, healthy ways to respond, and how to own if you were the one that spoke it.

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Relationship Escalator​

“Is this relationship going anywhere?” If you’ve heard this cliché (or perhaps thought or said it yourself): welcome to the relationship escalator. This workshop will cover what the Relationship Escalator is and how it can affect poly relationships.

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Self Defence Workshop​​

Poly people are often known to be very loving and trusting. We also happen to go on more first dates than your average bear. This interactive workshop will teach basic techniques of how to defend yourself in various situations. Techniques such as using one's voice, wrist grabs escapes, and escapes from the ground will be taught. Those who wish to attend this workshop should bring water and wear comfortable clothing they can move around in. No experience required.

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Sex Worker Q and A​​

Sex work is the world's oldest profession and one of the least protected trades. Hear from two people who have spent years in the industry about their experience. They will share how they stayed safe, the effect it had on their relationships, and how one retired. Additional topics covered will be diversity within the industry and the effect of the newest laws.

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Trust and Triggers: Dating While Healing and/or Disabled​​

Using the facilitator's lived experiences and various tips and skills they've learned along the way, this workshop will focus on practical ways folks in recovery and/or who have disabilities can date each other or date able-bodied and neurotypical partners. Questions that will be explored: How do we explain our access needs when they keep changing? How do we ask for and accept help when we're the service-oriented one in the relationship(s)? How do we know folks don't want to date us so they can "rescue" us? What if we don't know all our triggers? How do we make a trigger plan? For partners who are temporarily able-bodied and/or neurotypical, there will also be tips on how to navigate relationships of interdependence while still respecting the autonomy of everyone involved and getting care from others when you feel like a burnt-out caretaker yourself. This workshop is largely discussion-based, though there may be some interactive exercises and handouts.

 

You talk, I'll listen! Effective communication for healthy partnerships​

One of the foundational pieces to any healthy and successful partnership (whether it be poly OR mono) is a communication style that allows everyone to express themselves, be heard, and be validated.  So how do we ensure that we all get that? Not everyone communicates the way you do... and that's actually not a bad thing! It allows us to grow as individuals and with our partners, so that we may master any situation where communication is key. In this workshop, you will learn about the 5 different communication styles we all use every day. You will also get the chance to work on your active listening skills through some interactive exercises. Finally, you will learn about the different languages of love. These are the different ways in which each one of us chooses to show our love and affection towards our partners. By knowing how you and your partner each communicate love and affection to one another, you can begin to recognize more readily when they are showing you their love and affection, leading to more enriched and fulfilling partnerships! Communication never sounded so sweet!